A few visions of a possible future Troy
Catching up a bit: Plans, renderings, and slides from the recent public meetings for Realize Troy -- effort to develop a new comprehensive plan for Troy -- and are online. And they're worth having a look if you haven't seen them. If you'd like to just flick through one deck of slides, here's the overview presentation.
A lot of the ideas and themes are similar to what's been discussed in Albany in recent years for that city's comprehensive plan and the current Rezone Albany project: developing downtown, making better connections to and use of the waterfront, providing job opportunities, fostering neighborhoods, adjusting codes so buildings better fit their contexts. The "big moves and plan directions":
1. A sustained program of reinvestment
2. Grow people, jobs, and the City's tax base
3. Position the downtown as the cultural and creative hub of the region
4. Grow and expand the success of downtown to the north and south
5. Revitalize neighborhoods and improve access to local amenities
6. Grow the city's skills and knowledge base
7. Reconnect the city to the waterfront and improve its recreational, development and cultural potential
8. Protect and enhance Troy's historical assets
9. Promote an inclusive, healthy, sustainable and green city
10. Continue to engage the broader community in making the Plan a success
The part we suspect that will first catch most people's eyes are some of the ideas floated for downtown Troy, including a re-imagining of the area just south of the Green Island Bridge with a permanent home for the farmers' market and a replacement for the Atrium. We've clipped those slides out -- they're after the jump if you'd like to have a quick look.
The project is currently in the "plan development" phase. It's gathering feedback on the draft plan via an online comment form.
Look up
The clip from the overview presentation are in large format above -- click or scroll all the way up.
Say Something!
We'd really like you to take part in the conversation here at All Over Albany. But we do have a few rules here. Don't worry, they're easy. The first: be kind. The second: treat everyone else with the same respect you'd like to see in return. Cool? Great, post away. Comments are moderated so it might take a little while for your comment to show up. Thanks for being patient.
Comments
So after all Troy plans to have something build in 1 Monument square lot within next 25 years?
... said Mike on Apr 5, 2016 at 5:24 PM | link
Oh for the love of God how many more plans do we need?How many more insane power point presentations are required to get anything done? I would be embarrassed to go to work and come up with such earth shattering statements as "grow people, jobs, and the City.as tax base"...... ah freaking dah!!!! I love the Portlandia line "promote an inclusive, healthy, sustainable and green city".... who writes this crap?? Do these people sit in their urban lofts and brainstorm while smoking joints and drinking herbal tea? In the immortal words of Nike "just do it".... times a wasting'!!! Fix pot hole pick up trash police in street lower property taxes..... I too am a brilliant city planner!
... said BS on Apr 5, 2016 at 10:32 PM | link
The streets are filthy they could barely pick up the snow and they think they're going to take on a project like this?
... said Cyril on Apr 5, 2016 at 11:42 PM | link
Would be nice if all the out-of-area companies buying up properties would be amenable to these ideas instead of rent gouging or being content with keeping properties empty benefiting from the tax losses...and what the others said too.
... said Neighbor on Apr 6, 2016 at 9:26 AM | link
It's good to see that they're thinking of returning the Riverfront Park to something like its former appearance -- before Tutunjian turned it into the present barren surveillance park. I used to enjoy strolling thru Riverfront Park, but almost never visit the new park.
... said Chuck on Apr 6, 2016 at 10:32 AM | link
lots of good ideas!
... said Nancy King on Apr 6, 2016 at 10:33 AM | link
I think Providence, RI is a great city to look to for ideas for both Albany and Troy. There are a lot of good things happening there, and I watched downtown go from pretty crappy to vibrant in the years I lived there. They dealt with unfortunate highway placements in a way that should inspire us when looking to the old convention center lot in downtown Albany. Troy is so lucky to not have 787 blocking their waterfront, and absolutely should do a better job harnessing that potential. I definitely can get behind some of the "more plans?!" sentiment in the comments above, but I do think it's better to move forward slowly and deliberately than to just smack things together without a cohesive plan and hope it works. That's how we've been doing economic development in these cities for too long and we haven't seen much long-term progress. Let's keep thinking and planning and coming up with ideas. Tourism is good! Troy absolutely needs a bigger/better hotel. It definitely doesn't need a formal convention center. (And I don't think we should knock down Dinosaur BBQ, which it looks like these plans do). Plans aren't shovels in the ground, but they are a form of progress. This is a good thing.
... said ACW on Apr 6, 2016 at 11:16 AM | link
I attended the presentations of these plans. It could not have been more exciting. Troy is not going to be the builder of all these projects, but it will have a plan to use when considering proposed development. Make Troy organized. Give it a direction. Troy sorely needs it. 43% of the property in Troy pays 100% of the property taxes, even as vast tracts of land are sitting empty and undeveloped. This was a great project that Mayor Rosamilia started and Mayor Madden continues.
The citizens of Troy really will do themselves a service if they embrace this plan and hold the Mayor and City Council to it.
... said Dot Beech on Apr 6, 2016 at 6:26 PM | link
I am also getting tired of all the plans and ideas that never happen year after year. At this point, we just need to forget it and move on. Build a new expressway on the East side of the river from the Collar City Bridge to the Dunn Memorial Bridge, making 787 a loop to be renamed I-887. Or simpler, just rebuild the old city hall since clearly it wasn't ready to be torn down in the first place.
... said Blech on Apr 6, 2016 at 8:35 PM | link